


David Studies Too Much

by FluffyLlamacorn



Category: Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: (everyone drinking is over 18), Alternate Universe - No Powers, Aromantic, Aromantic Kate Bishop, Asexual Character, College AU, Kate Bishop Is a Good Bro, M/M, References to Shakespeare, a-spec tommy shepherd, asexual tommy shepherd, but nothing major comes of it, minor Kate/Tommy, minor appearances from other young avengers, shakesperian flirting, they do non-commital flirting and have fun, underage drinking by american standards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-04-19
Packaged: 2019-03-27 11:30:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13879953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FluffyLlamacorn/pseuds/FluffyLlamacorn
Summary: “So I’m special,” Tommy says, a cute grin on his face.“I-” David does not want a significant other. David does not have time for a significant other. Indicating an interest in getting a significant other would be ridiculously stupid. “Yeah.”Tommy smiles brightly enough to make it worth it.David does not have time for a boyfriend. But apparently, he sort of wants one.David is busy with university. He’s got a lot of classes, a strict schedule for when to study (often) and a single friend who will drag him out to socialize when he absolutely needs it. He doesn’t have time for a crush. Oops?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It's been.... a While since I last posted fanfic, but hey. I'm back. And I've actually written this whole thing in advance, so I should be able to keep a consistent update schedule baring any unforeseen happenings. Which means: 13k words spread out in 7 chapters and an epilogue. I plan to post a chapter once a week. That way I might actually have something else ready by the time I finish posting this.
> 
> Many thanks to punkdentist and howlikeagod for reading through this at various times.

**Chapter 1**

David’s days usually go something like this one:

He gets up early to do an hour of studying before classes. It’s Thursday during the first week of classes, so he doesn’t have any unfinished homework yet, but he can still read ahead or go over his notes for the day’s lectures. He’s smart, but he still needs to make sure he gets the most out of every lesson and that means figuring out in advance what won’t stick once he leaves class.

His first class is at 8 am, but his full ride scholarship includes a place to live at school, so it doesn’t take him long to get there. The subject is American History. He wouldn’t normally take classes in it, but he likes the teacher from last year and, being Native American, Professor Moonstar has a refreshingly disillusioned take on the topic. Besides, he had a spot in his schedule and they only meet twice a week for two hours.

At 10:30 am he has a class that’s actually relevant for his engineering degree. Professor Stark teaches about alternative energy sources and how to use them in various projects. He has to cover the more traditional, renewable energy sources like water and wind first, but he has promised to talk at length about some of his own world famous inventions later in the semester and give them the inside scoop on them. David is looking very much forwards to that.

David eats his lunch – a homemade, nutritionally optimized sandwich – on the way to his next class, Accounting with Professor Drake at 2 pm, and prepares himself mentally to socialize. American History is too early for people to talk to him and everyone who takes Alternative Energy Sources is too obsessed with the topic to remember that small talk and socializing is good for you. David sometimes nods at Riri or discusses the topic with her, but nothing that requires personal opinions.

Kate Bishop greets him with a huge grin as he sits down next to her at their spots in the accounting lecture hall. “There’s my favorite nerd. How many nerdfacts have you learned since I last saw you?”

“Three hundred seventy two and a half,” David rattles off randomly. They saw each other yesterday. “How’s branding?”

“Clear sailing in blue oceans,” Kate says. “How do you learn half a nerdfact?”

“It wasn’t that nerdy,” David deadpans.

“Hmm, that almost makes sense,” Kate accepts.

David met Kate the year before during Intro to Business. Both had known half of the curriculum in advance, but still needed the subject to take more interesting classes later. Having someone to complain with had been a blessing. Kate was the sort of person who did not let friendships end when you walked out the classroom door and quickly declared herself David’s best friend when she realized she didn’t have any real competition. David, while terrible at initiating contact, knew having a friend would be good for his mental health and figured this was definitely the easiest way of making one, so he just rolled with it. Kate’s pretty great company in any case.

Class starts and Kate knows better than distracting David from learning. Professor Drake is a pretty chill teacher who makes a lot of jokes, which Kate enjoys more than David. David can’t help the feeling that he’s trying to present himself as young and cool, but he’s a good teacher and that’s the important part. Class ends eventually, David having taken significantly more notes than Kate, and they have to pack their things quickly to get to their next class on time.

David’s last class of the day is Minorities in Modern Literature and he shares it with Kate. He took it because the subject sounded interesting and Kate took it because she needed an English credit and it was the most interesting of the English classes her best friend was taking. They have 15 minutes to get there, but it’s in the English building in the other side of campus and it’s the first time the class meets, so they’re not entirely sure how to get to the classroom the fastest. They get there only a couple of minutes before the class starts at 4:15 pm and hmm.

David knew from the course description that it would be a discussion based class, but he’s still surprised when he’s greeted by a circle of chairs and no tables in sight. When he sits down next to Kate, he gets out a notebook with a stiff enough back that he can write in his lap.

It’s a small class, only around ten students. It looks, unsurprisingly, like a pretty racially diverse group of people.

The teacher arrives with a lot of photocopied papers in his hand right after David and Kate sits down and sits down in the circle as well. He introduces himself as Sam Wilson and talks about the subject, what they’re going to discuss during the semester and the expectations of the students. It’s also in the course description David had found online, but David dutifully takes notes. Experience tells him that he doesn’t understand nearly as much when he gets home, so taking detailed notes has become second nature. After introducing himself and the subject, Professor Wilson encourages the students to introduce themselves.

They do a round, starting with the brown girl sitting next to the teacher. She’s… apparently a fan of the American flag. “My name’s America Chavez. I’m a lesbian latina and so were both of my moms. If you’ve got a problem with any of that, let me know.” She doesn’t need to spell out her threat. It’s obvious in the way she looks out at the crowd.

Next is a guy with bleached blond hair, who looks like he thinks he’s too cool to be here. “Yeah, I’m Tommy,” he says. “I’m really just here because I told my brother to sign me up for whatever English credit he thought looked easiest.”

“I apologize in advance for my brother,” says the boy next to him, who looks like a brunette version of the first boy, except much more engaged in the idea of school. “I had forgotten that he’s much too obnoxious for discussions. I’m Billy and I’m…” He looks through the crowd for a sign of something. “Yeah, well, I’m sorry my brother’s annoying as hell.”

“I’m offended,” Tommy complains.

“Good,” Billy tells him. David knows enough about relationships based on mutual teasing to see the love, but also the honest exasperation.

David decides to go simple when the introduction reaches him. “I’m David Alleyne. Second year, engineering major, looking forwards to learning.”

Tommy snorts from the other side of the circle. “Good news, Billy, you’re not the only nerd.”

David silently writes him off as a douche and raises a judging eyebrow at Kate to communicate that fact. Kate catches it with a smirk of agreement. “I’m Kate Bishop,” she introduces herself to the class with a commanding voice. She knows how to control a crowd. “Does hella rich count as a minority?” She’s also visibly part Japanese, so her joke is read as a joke by everyone, even if the other black student, a guy who had introduced himself as Eli, rolls his eyes at it.

“Not one of the minorities we’ll be looking at unfortunately,” Professor Wilson tells her.

“Worth a shot,” Kate shrugs and lets the introduction continue to the next in the circle, a notably handsome, blonde guy who introduces himself as Teddy.

After the introductions, the teacher hands out a short story to read and discuss during class. When class ends a bit past six, David’s finally done with classes for the day. He says goodbye to Kate and goes home to make dinner.

Nutrition is important for one’s health, so David makes sure he has time to make healthy dinner as often as possible. He doesn’t have a lot of homework tonight, so he has time to make extra and have leftovers later. He listens to educational podcasts while cooking to keep the time productive and starts reading the assigned reading while eating.

After dinner, he has time for four hours of studying before getting six hours of sleep. His many and varied subjects gives him a lot of reading and he needs to go over his notes several times to make sure he has internalized everything correctly. Later in the semester, he’ll have deadlines coming on and he might need to sacrifice part of his night sleep, but the more well rested he generally is, the better he’ll be able to work.

Finally he goes to bed satisfied with a day’s good work and gets ready to do all of it again the next day.


	2. Chapter 2

That’s not every day, though.

Once in a while Kate decides that David has spent too much time on school and drags him away from his studies. David allows this because A) she generally warns him in advance, so he can make sure he’s done anything important first and B) he has researched good studying techniques and it’s important to take breaks even though they feel counterproductive.

It's Friday night almost a month into the semester and Kate has managed to get David to postpone his study session for Monday’s test until Saturday, so they go to their usual club. It's loud and crowded and the line to the bar takes forever. There's no way David would have stepped foot in there before he met Kate, but he's gotten surprisingly good at shutting the noise out and just hearing Kate's story, which is currently about her ambitious goals in her archery training.

"Do you realize the Robin Hood shot is impossible?" David asks because of course he's researched his best friend's hobbies. He's researched everything. "They've done studies."

"Maybe for other people, but I'm way cooler," Kate grins as they sit down with their drinks at their usual table, placed just right to watch the entire room in a corner that was relatively quiet, which meant they only need to talk loudly and not yell to hear each other. "Besides, my coach keeps telling me to take every shot, no matter how impossible they may seem."

"Is he aware that you're going to apply that advice to your real life and get in a horrible car crash some day?" David asks.

"I'm not _that_ bad!" Kate would sound honestly offended to people who don't know her better.

"You're worse," David informs her and she laughs.

"I don't need to listen to all of these lies and slander," Kate laughs. "I could sue you, you know." Unlike David, Kate is not there on a scholarship. Kate is there because her dad owns a third of the school. She has the money for a trial.

"Mmm, but then, who would keep you company here?" David asks.

"What! Lots of people!" Kate scans the room before pointing at a guy by the bar. "That guy!"

"Did you just point at a random person?" David laughs.

"No, I'm pretty sure that's Tommy, you know, from MiML?" She pronounces is “mimmel” and is trying to make it catch on, but David refuses to help her out. It sounds silly and isn’t much faster out loud. Currently, she's leaning out of her chair in an attempt to get a better view of the guy at the bar and David can’t help but worry about her balance.

"Right, the twin with the white hair," David remembers. It helps that there's someone in the direction Kate's looking with that hair color.

"Yeah, the one that didn't go for the hunky blonde," Kate smirks at him and he rolls his eyes. David might have considered going for the hunky blonde before he got snatched up, but to be fair, everyone attracted to men and possibly some that aren't would have considered going for him.

"You have such nice nicknames for everyone," David tells her.

"I have literally met them twice," Kate defends herself.

David rolls his eyes again because that is just remarkably bad math. “Kate, we’ve had three weeks of classes and we have Minorities both Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. You’ve met them six times, including this morning,” he reminds her.

"Whatever, Friday mornings are too early to socialize," Kate tells him. "But that's just another reason to say hi. Tommy!" she yells, then whispers to David: "That _is_ him, right?"

"I think so?" David offers, but the light is weird and he's kinda far away so he's mainly basing it on how few other people on campus have white hair. The guy has left the bar with a drink and is probably looking for a place to sit based on the way he's scanning the room.

"Tommy!" Kate yells again, louder this time and waves with all of her arm.

The guy notices her yelling and comes over, which increases the chance of him being Tommy dramatically. He comes over and grins as a greeting. "Hey, I know you guys."

"Good to see you outside of school for once," Kate tells him.

"Yeah, it's so stuffy there," Tommy agrees. He pulls over a chair from a nearby table and sits down, addressing David as he continues. "And here I thought you would be too much of nerd to go to clubs. You know, like Billy.”

"I would be if Kate didn't drag me along," David shrugs.

"Only sometimes literally," Kate smirks.

Tommy grins at her. "A noble cause."

"I _am_ pretty great," Kate says and Tommy laughs.

"So, are you here alone?" David asks. Just because he's not there with his brother doesn't mean he can't be there with friends.

"Yeah, Billy's lame and cooler people had other plans," Tommy says. David can't help but wonder if Tommy would spend as much time insulting his brother if they didn't know him.

"Good thing you found the coolest guys on campus to join," Kate tells him and raises her glass for a toast.

"Hell yeah!" Tommy agrees as he raises his own bottle. "So what are we drinking?"

"Only the finest scotch is good enough for me," Kate tells him with faux finesse.

"We got rum and coke," David tells him because that's bullshit. Kate is perfectly happy drinking cheap shots when she just wants to get drunk. "Except mine's without the rum."

"What, seriously?" Tommy asks. "Why?"

"I'm twenty," David tells him.

"Yeah and I’m nineteen," Tommy says. "That's what fake IDs are for."

"That's illegal," David tells him.

"So?"

David rubs his temple, because that should really be enough explanation.

"Right, you're here for the dancing then," Tommy concludes.

"Not really," David says. It's not that David's a terrible dancer he's pretty sure, it's just that he sees no reason to do it.

"Then what is even the _point_ in going to a club?" Tommy asks, sounding honestly confused.

"I'm trying to save him from being the kind of sad nerd that stays in his room with his homework on a Friday night," Kate explains.

"The company," David deadpans.

Tommy laughs, an honest laugh like he actually thinks David is really funny and not just mildly entertaining. It may have made David smile.

"What about you, then?" Tommy asks Kate. "D'you dance?"

"Only when the music's this good," Kate grins. David represses his urge to roll his eyes, because the speaker is playing some generic dance remix of a pop song with a heavy baseline and Kate plays the cello. It might be good dance music, but it’s hardly good _music_.

"Then what're we waiting for?" Tommy grins back and they disappear to the dance floor.

David shakes his head fondly and picks up the book he brought for this very situation. He's in the middle of some light reading about quantum mechanics when they come back a couple of chapters later.

"Seriously?" Tommy laughs. "You're the kind of sad nerd that brings his homework to a club instead of staying home with it?"

"You can take the nerd out of the room, but you can’t take it out of the boy," Kate says. "Besides, I'll betcha next round it's just for fun and not even for school."

"You're on," Tommy tells her.

"I'm taking Dr. Brashear's new subject on the structure of the universe," David tells them.

"Arright, fiiine," Kate laughs as she gets up from the chair she has only just sat down in.

"See you in an hour," David notes.

"I've got boobs, dear David," Kate reminds him. "I don't need to stand in lines."

Tommy looks back and forth between them, grinning, until he realizes something and a look of horror strikes him. "Are you two dating?" he asks David. Kate is too far away to hear.

David manages not to laugh at that, but only barely. "No way," he says. "That’s the last thing you should worry about.” He knows he shouldn't find it so funny, Tommy just wants to know if he can expect anything other than dancing with the cute girl he's got his eyes on and Kate will let him know where her boundaries go, but the thought of Kate and him is just never happening.

"You sure?" Tommy asks. "You're always flirting."

"Oh, no," David laughs. "That is _so_ not how I flirt. I’m _terrible_ at flirting. Kate and I enjoy insulting each other, but I promise it's entirely platonic."

Tommy smiles in a way that shows his teeth and it really suits him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A note on ages: I'm acknowledging the high drinking age in America, but I'm not gonna send children to university, so. You're gonna have to deal if that bothers you. :P  
> Thanks to everyone who commented for the warm welcome, I hope you continue to enjoy the story! :D


	3. Chapter 3

After that, Kate decides to drag David away from his studies more regularly. “We’re in college, David,” she declares. “Friday evenings are not meant to be spent studying in your room when you have friends as cool as me.” David tries to argue that time – and especially weekdays – is a cultural construct and as such don’t need to matter, but once Kate Bishop has decided on something, it’s impossible to talk her out of it.

David’s not really surprised. It’s obvious she has great chemistry with Tommy and understandable that she wants more chances to flirt with him. David just doesn’t get why he has to come along. While he enjoys bantering with both of them and Tommy is much more enjoyable outside of a school setting where he doesn’t need to perform his disinterest nearly as much, David still winds up on his own at some point during most evenings. He wouldn’t mind if it happened once in a while, but he doesn’t get why he gets dragged along just to be left alone.

One Friday evening has Kate off flirting the DJ into changing the music to Beyoncé while David is reading another heavy book – getting dragged to clubs all the time doesn’t mean he can relax his study schedule – and Tommy is emptying his third drink rapidly. He's seemingly on a mission to get drunk, because he immediately jumps off his chair and announces he's going to get another drink.

"Do you want anything?" he asks. That's a general plus to David not drinking alcohol. Other people go to the bar for him.

"Yeah, sure, whatever," David says. He's in the middle of a part of his book that requires a bit more concentration than he has with the music and the lights, so he's not really able to spare any for conversation. He gives Tommy a handful of dollars to pay and gets back to his book.

It's about an elegant mathematical proof used to explain an obscure feature of prime numbers. He probably shouldn't be reading it at a club, because he's barely made progress when Tommy gets back, so he closes it and tries to focus on conversation again. There’s no need to read it now when he’ll need to reread it later, preferably with graph paper by his side.

"Here," Tommy says as he hands David some colorful drink. It almost looks like a sunrise, but the club's drink selection is one of the few things David hasn't bothered learning by heart.

"Thanks," David says before taking his first sip from the blue straw.

Tommy smiles and he has a really nice smile. Some part of David wonders if that's an appropriate thing for him to notice, but it's true, so.

They talk for a bit. Tommy’s better at controlling the flow of a conversation, so it ends up being mainly gossip about Billy and the rest of their friends. David has realized in the last couple of weeks that Tommy’s also in his World History class and Billy’s in Chemistry. He’s recognized some of the others in other of his classes as well. While David hasn’t been in charge of the effort, they’ve been building some friendships up based around that silly, little English class. (Kate’s still trying to make MiML happen and David is still staunchly against it, but others are starting to come around to it. Tommy embraced it the first time he heard it.)

"Is that a Sunset Surge?" Kate asks David when she finally returns to the table. She sounds surprised.

"Uh, that sounds about right," David says off-handedly as he takes another sip. He's almost done with it by then. It's pretty tasty. "Tommy got it for me."

Kate is staring at him when he puts it down.

"What?"

"Are you aware there's alcohol in it?" Kate asks.

David blinks. "Tommy?" he asks, turning to his friend.

"Oh, yeah, that sounds likely," Tommy nods, not completely paying attention, too busy checking out the hot girls at a nearby table.

"Tommy, there's a reason I don't drink," David tells him.

"Yeah, yeah, you're underage, but you didn't actually buy the alcohol, so it's not illegal," Tommy shrugs him off.

"I- That's not how the law goes," David complains.

"And that's not the problem. The problem is that David's a terrible light weight," Kate confides.

"It’s ridiculous how little alcohol it takes to get me drunk," David confirms very seriously as he takes another sip through the straw. "What?" he questions when Kate raises a perfectly plucked eyebrow at him. "I've already drunk most of the alcohol and it's tasty."

"As you can see, his judgment is already being impaired," Kate tells Tommy. "Drunk David is only moments from arriving."

Tommy grins in a way that makes his eyes shine. "Does drunk David dance?"

"Absolutely not," David denies.

Drunk David dances like thirty minutes later when the alcohol has reached his brain.

* * *

Hung over David wakes up the next morning to the smell of food filling his apartment and a splintering headache, which sucks because he has an essay to write. (He trusts Kate enough to know he only got the one drink and all of his pain is because he's a terrible light weight.) His head hurts too much for him to even start wondering about who might have caused his apartment to smell so nice. He probably wouldn't have expected Tommy if he had, but that's who he finds.

"You're awake!" Tommy says when David enters the kitchen, like it's perfectly normal for him to stay the night. "I've made breakfast."

"Uh," David says. "Why are you here?" He's not good with words when he has a hangover, which sucks because he has an essay to write.

"I made breakfast?"

"Yes, thank you," David acknowledges. "Why?"

"You were more upset about the alcohol than I imagined," Tommy shrugs. "Kate made it sound like you would be super pissed when you were sober again, so I wanted to apologize when you would be able to remember."

"So you stayed the night," David sums up. "Where did you even sleep? Did you- Please tell me I didn't touch you," David begs, hiding his face in a hand. Drunk David is also flirty David and while he doesn’t normally flirt with his friends while drunk, Tommy is perfectly cute with a great smile and his friends don’t normally follow him home. Who knows what drunk him might have done? Such an untrustworthy person.

Tommy smiles at him like being worried about that makes him the best person ever. "I took the couch."

"Alright, alright, apology accepted, can we end the conversation now?” David asks. “I need to write an essay and this headache isn’t helping."

"You kept mentioning that yesterday as well," Tommy says. "But you'll need to eat breakfast first in any case, so let's start with that."

Tommy sets a table for two before David has time to react, so he just goes along. As Tommy turns out to be a good cook and the pancakes looks amazing, David can hardly complain.

"You know, I like relaxed David," Tommy mentions halfway through the meal. "I wish I got to see more of him."

"I'm here on a straight A scholarship," David reminds him. "I _need_ to study or I won't be able to keep it going. Besides, I like studying everything and that means preparation time. Sometimes while I have a headache."

"Yeah, but you're a genius," Tommy says. "You can take a couple of days out of your schedule to have fun without hurting your grades."

David glares at him over a piece of toast. "I already am. You should have met me during high school. Sure, I had friends, but none of them had Kate’s tendency to literally drag me away when I study too much... It's really forced me to accept that I can't study 24/7. But still. I have a responsibility to make the most of my gift."

"You really don't," Tommy says. "I've always been told I should be a runner, that I would be wasting my abilities if I don't train properly, but I just don't give a shit. I run to have fun, not to win prizes."

”That’s, uhm,” David starts, but he’s not sure where he wants to go with it, so he takes another bite of his toast to make sure he doesn’t say something offensive about the importance of sports compared to whatever discoveries he might potentially be able to make in the future. “I didn’t know you ran?” Tommy had gotten a scholarship for trying to fix his life after having been to juvie during high school. It was something the school did for their image. If he was that great of an athlete, he could have tried to get sports scholarship and most people would have preferred that.

“I’m super fast, but I don’t have the patience for competitions,” Tommy shrugs.

“Mm,” David says before cutting his pancake up once more.

“How much do you remember from last night?” Tommy asks after another moment.

“I assume I was embarrassing,” David sighs. “But I either get black out drunk or I suppress the memories because I never remember anything.”

“Do you know you’re a terrible flirt when you’re drunk?” Tommy grins.

“I’m always terrible at flirting,” David informs him. “It’s just that when I’m drunk, I do it anyway.”

Tommy laughs and A) _HEADACHE_ but B) he has a really nice laugh, so David only flinches slightly. “Right, sorry,” Tommy chuckles when he notices. "You should practice, you know."

"Practice?" David repeats as he takes a sip from his coffee and yes, that's the thing his brain needs right then.

"I have certain standards, David," Tommy tells him with eyes flashing with something David's head hurts too much to decode. "I refuse to be won by lines that lame, no matter how cute a person they come from." He’s leaning in over the table, which is small enough to make the situation suddenly intimate.

"Uh," David says, slowly repeating the words in his mind until they start to make sense. "I'm sorry for exposing you to that."

Tommy leans back in his chair and sighs. "Good luck writing an essay when you're this bad at figuring stuff out."

"Yeah, that'll be terrible," David agrees, but even this hung over, he doesn’t miss the change in tone. "What am I missing?"

"You know what," Tommy says, quickly getting up from his chair and shrugging on his coat. "How about you let me know when you figure it out?"

"Uhm," David says as Tommy disappears out of his apartment. His brain is awake enough to know he just ruined a moment, but not enough to tell him how.

It’s not until he’s reheating some leftovers for an early dinner much later – after a day of intense essay writing and forgetting about basic needs like hunger until his stomach growls loudly enough to remind him – that he realizes Tommy was flirting with him.

Which… Huh.

Interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time to bring on the shippiness! I have had drafts of these scenes lying around for YEARS and it's so weird to do the final read through before posting, but in a really wonderful way. Hope you're all still enjoying this as well.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kate torments David about drunk shenanigans and then David has another realization.

Kate calls shortly after David sits down with his dinner and he puts her on loudspeaker.

“Hey Kate,” he greets.

“Have you had anything to eat today?” she greets.

“I’ll have you know that I’m about to start my second meal of the day,” David says. No friend group should have two mom friends. It’s a good thing they know how to alternate.

“How’s your essay?” Kate asks next. David knows she doesn’t care all that much, but she knows he does and he appreciates the gesture.

“It’s alright. Hangovers make for terrible writing skills, but I started with the easy stuff,” David says. “I’ll need to make some more revisions than otherwise, but I’ve set off time for that.”

“Great, so you won’t be too mad at Tommy to hang out with him in the future,” Kate says. “That’s good, he’s a fun dance partner.”

David had taken a mouthful of pasta while she spoke, which he’s suddenly thankful for. His first thought is to ask about that, about what his interest feels like, but just because Tommy’s interested in him, doesn’t mean he’s interested in Tommy. On the other hand, Kate obviously mentioned him as a hook to get a reaction out of him, which, together with what Tommy said earlier, heavily implies that David did something terribly embarrassing on that count last night. A hesitation would be just as implicating as saying something wrong. Once he’s eaten the mouthful, he says “Nah, he apologized and it was an honest mistake that I could have avoided if I’d been paying more attention.”

“So did he actually sleep at your place?” Kate says innocently, though David can easily hear the smirk on her lips.

“He crashed on the couch,” David says. “Do you realize I can’t actually see your eyebrows?” She liked to wiggle her eyebrows when she wanted to highlight that she was being suggestive.

“You can obviously see them in your mind’s eye,” Kate points out, which, touché. “So how did it go?”

“He made breakfast and we talked,” David says. “Nothing special.”

“Nothing,” Kate repeats.

“Not really,” David shrugs.

“He didn’t imply a single thing about anything that happened last night?” Kate asks.

“Not anything worse than I was expecting,” David says.

“Did he mention you tried to kiss him?” Kate asks.

“What!?” David gasps. He had _just_ taken a glass of water. One spit take later and it was all over his plate.

“Oh, so he didn’t,” Kate says smugly.

“Are you serious?” David asks. He’s not- Okay, so he hasn’t done a lot of experimentation on the topic, but he’s pretty sure his flirting is directed at hot strangers, not his friends. He also likes to think he still manages to listen to whatever signals get shot back, at least enough to not try to kiss someone uninterested, but Tommy _has_ already been established to not be uninterested… But still, people have always made fun of him for flirting with hot people way out of his league, not people he knew. The only exception was that time with Nori and he’d already had a crush on-

Nope, not opening that can of worms right now, no need to admit anything like that.

“Am I ever not serious?” Kate asks.

“Most of the time.”

“Ouch.”

“Just tell me what I did,” David says.

“Wait, really?” Kate asks. “I thought you were happy not knowing the depths of your embarrassing acts.”

“Yeah, because they’ll never affect my sober life. I’m bound to meet Tommy again,” David explains.

“Okay then,” Kate says. She sounds like she’s going to enjoy herself telling the story. “Do you remember the hot blonde triplets that weren’t up for an orgy?”

“What? No.”

“I mean, I mainly blame your lack of flirting skills,” Kate elaborates. “You opened with the ‘did you fall from heaven’ line, except you were too drunk to remember the order of the words and then you had to share a fun fact about Lucifer for some reason.”

“Kate,” David tries to interrupt.

“They were _very_ hot, David!” Kate complains. “I’m allowed to be disappointed.”

“Kate, what did I do to Tommy?”

“I’m getting to that,” Kate tells him. “Because, see, Tommy laughed at your failure to flirt and then you challenged him to do it better, but I don’t think you expected him to flirt with _you_.”

“What.”

“Yeah, he started talking about your eyes and he put his hand on your shoulder and moved closer and everything. It was very classic overdone Tommy flirting,” Kate says. “You know what I’m talking about, right?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” David admits.

“You’ll see,” Kate tells him. “It’s a thing he does, start off very intensely like that. Same sort of ending as well.”

“What was the ending?” David asks.

“Well, first we need to replay the middle,” Kate says and yes, she’s enjoying torturing him. Why is she his best friend? “Because you totally started flirting back, except, you know, at a terribly clichéd manner. Seriously, did you study a book on pick up lines or what? I have never heard you say anything smooth.”

“I was very young and very nervous about a crush on a very cute girl and studying normally fixed everything,” David admits, thankful she can’t see his blush. “Can you move on?”

“Oh my god, really?” Kate laughs.

“Kate. Story. Continue.”

“Alright, so you two were flirting at each other and he was significantly smoother than you and I have no clue how much either of you were just showing off and how much you meant it, but you were both totally into it. At some point he had put his hand on your cheek which you apparently took as a sign to lean in and try to kiss him, but then he started laughing at you and moved out of your range.”

“Oh god,” David adds.

“Well, he did wink at you and tell you to try again when you were better at flirting. You’re thankfully aware that you’re terrible at flirting or something, because you didn’t try with him again at any point,” Kate finishes.

“I’ve lost my appetite,” David says.

“Now, I do love to torture you-” Kate starts.

“I know,” David interrupts.

“But I do think you deserve to know that he didn’t _just_ laugh at you because of your horrendous flirting skills,” she finishes. “I mean, they were definitely part of it, but it’s a thing he does, imply something and then bail when his partner takes him up on it.”

“What’s he done to you?” David asks.

“Eh,” Kate says. “I learned after the second time he wasn’t actually up for touching my boobs not to take him seriously.”

“The second time.”

“I am intimidatingly hot, David,” Kate tells him. “Lots of people worry I’ll break their hands if they overstep.”

“By the way, don’t think I’m not noticing how you’re avoiding talking seriously about your personal life, right after digging through mine,” David mentions.

“That’s because my personal life isn’t relevant when we’re talking about yours and what you’re gonna do about your crush on Tommy.”

“I do not have a crush on Tommy.”

“Please,” Kate says. “I’ve met drunk you before. You don’t flirt with people you aren’t interested in.”

“I don’t know, he’s not bad looking and you say he was flirting with me. That sounds like it could be enough for drunk me,” David defends.

“David,” Kate says. “I’m smoking hot and I’ve flirted with you while you were drunk without getting a reaction out of you.”

“What. When?”

“I dunno, the first time?” She’d seen him drunk three times by then, including the night before. The first time had been an accident similar to last night and the second time someone had spiked his drink because they thought he was being all high and mighty about not drinking. “I wanted to see what would happen. You didn’t even notice it, thought I was telling some sort of joke.”

“Kate, why?” David sighs.

“I didn’t know nothing would ever happen between us. Besides, your flirting was hilariously bad and I wanted more chances to witness it. It was kind of a joke.” She was probably shrugging. She was using the tone of voice she generally used when shrugging.

David sighs.

“The point is that you should do something about your crush on Tommy while you’re sober,” Kate says.

“I don’t have a crush on Tommy,” David says.

Kate scoffs, but can recognize when she won’t be able to convince him of anything. “So, do you wanna hear what else you did?”

* * *

David isn’t sure if he should apologize to Tommy or pretend nothing ever happened. He’s not looking for any sort of relationship and anyway, Tommy was probably just joking around and has completely forgotten about it. There’s no need to remind him of a drunken mistake. Tommy was probably still in party mode when he got offended the day after and there’s no need to remind him of something silly like that anyway.

Or maybe Tommy is honestly annoyed. David isn’t sure. He has yet to see him and find out.

David has a huge book to read Sunday. He decides to go read it outside. The fresh air will help him clear his mind. He finds a spot in the local park near a track and a lake, sits down on his blanket and starts reading. Five chapters later, a voice disturbs him.

“Are you stalking me?”

David looks up to find Tommy standing above him. He’s blocking the sun, so David can’t see his expression, but he can still tell he’s wearing green workout clothes and holding a water bottle. “Because I go on my first run after telling you about them and suddenly there you are. Kinda suspicious.”

“Uhm,” David says. He had not planned on running into Tommy yet. “Not on purpose?”

“Cool,” Tommy says and sits down next to David like he’s been invited. “What are you reading?”

“Homework.”

“Nerd,” Tommy says. He’s smiling. They’re okay.

Which means it’s time for David to ruin everything.

“I, uhm, figured out what you meant,” David says.

“Oh?” Tommy says coolly.

“I don’t normally, you know, subject my friends to my flirting that… personally,” David says. Why is he keeping it vague? That’s ridiculous. There’s no one around to hear them.

“So I’m special,” Tommy says, a cute grin on his face.

“I-” David does not want a significant other. David does not have time for a significant other. Indicating an interest in getting a significant other would be ridiculously stupid. “Yeah.”

Tommy smiles brightly enough to make it worth it.

They sit quietly together for a while. Tommy’s sitting up, but leaning backwards, trying to catch the last of the sun’s rays, pale as he is. Closed eyes and huge smile, he looks perfectly content to stay like that forever.

David considers his options, then refocuses his attention on his textbook, finding the spot Tommy had distracted him from. Then softly, slowly, he moves his right hand until it lies on top of Tommy’s left hand, which had been positioned just far enough away from Tommy to be an invitation. David stops there, rereads the first sentence for the fifth time and then glances up to see Tommy’s reaction. He hadn’t moved his hand, but David’s hand might be light enough he hasn’t noticed.

Tommy’s looking right at him when he glances up. He’s wearing a smug, knowing smirk, knows exactly what David’s doing. Then he closes his eyes again and the smugness disappears from his smile as he goes back to his sunbathing, his hand remaining where it is.

David does not have time for a boyfriend. But apparently he sort of wants one.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kate has a GREAT idea for how David should flirt with Tommy. David is... less than thrilled, but even worse at coming up with ideas, so...

“Tell me all of the juicy details,” Kate orders when David meets her Monday morning for Econ 205.

“From what?”

“Your attempts to woo Tommy, duh.” Kate rolls her eyes.

“I am not attempting to-” David starts, but cuts himself off with a sigh. He kinda is. “There aren’t any juicy details.”

“ _Bo_ -ring,” Kate complains. “Come on, I need some vicarious living. I need other people to have crushes for me, remember?”

“Do you remember the part where I suck at flirting?” David asks. “I need to do this without opening my mouth.”

Kate shrugs. “Just stick your tongue down his throat. That works for me.”

David resists the urge to sigh. “We sort of want different things.”

“True,” Kate says. She’s mercifully quiet for a moment, then giggles. “I cannot believe you actually learned to flirt from The Bro Code.”

“It was not The Bro Code,” David corrects.

“Whatever. I just don’t get why you haven’t studied some better texts on how to flirt. That seems right up your alley.”

“I have,” David sighs. “But when I need to actually use that knowledge, I freeze and my otherwise perfectly functional brain supplies me with a worthless pick up line.”

Kate is nice, so she laughs at his misery. “I just think it’s hilarious. You’re a sophisticated genius. You should be quoting Shakespearian poetry or something.”

“My brain was not designed for flirting,” David complains as he hides his face in his hands. “At least I can stop myself from doing it when I’m sober.”

“Dude,” Kate says like she’s solved the world’s problems. “You _should_ quote Shakespearian poetry at him.”

“ _No_.”

“Come on, it’s perfect.” Kate’s smiling. It’s not her dignity on the line. “You’re a nerd and it’s a nerd thing to do.”

“I’m not a Shakespeare nerd,” David complains.

“You’re every kind of nerd,” Kate says.

“It’s embarrassing and over the top,” David tries instead.

“Well, I’m not saying you need to perform it or anything. You could even pretend you’re just practicing for one of your other English classes or something, as long as he realizes at some point it’s meant for him.” Kate looks way too pleased with herself.

“Kate, no.”

“I’ll pay you.” Kate is way too into this idea.

“What.” Oh god.

“Ten dollars?”

“Kate, stop.”

“Twenty?”

“No.”

“Thirty?”

“Kate, I have my dignity.”

“Fifty?”

David pauses just long enough to encourage her. “Kate, just… Just drop it, alright?”

“You considered it,” Kate points out. “Why _not_ do something you want to do just because you can also get paid for it?”

“I’m not opposed to the idea of flirting with Tommy in a non-embarrassing manner,” David says. “This counts as embarrassing.”

“A hundred bucks,” Kate says. “I’ll drop the topic, but think about it.”

David is very thankful for his well-practiced poker face because a hundred dollars is far too much money for him to not at least consider it. The dangers of having a best friend with more money than she knows what to do with.

Knowing Tommy, he wouldn’t even be offended at David choosing flirting method based on a dare. If he hadn’t been interested in flirting with Tommy otherwise, it would be terrible of course, but since he was… And a hundred dollars aren’t nothing. He could even spend some of them on Tommy and-

Shit, he’s planning dates.

David really needs to do something about this crush.

* * *

David usually spends his free lesson Tuesday studying alone in the library. This Tuesday, Tommy, who normally disappears to do potentially criminal things after their world history lesson right before, goes with him.

“So, what are you going to study?” David asks as they sit down at David’s usual table.

“I dunno,” Tommy shrugs. “I just wanted to hang out, I guess.”

David has never understood the concept of internal screaming as well as he does right then. His heart is beating at twice its normal rate, but he’s pretty sure he isn’t blushing. David is in full control of his poker face. “Cool,” he just says.

They settle in. David starts on his physics homework while Tommy looks through some comics he’s nicked from Billy’s stash. David tries not to look up at every little sound Tommy makes.

He really needs to do something about this crush of his.

He really needs to learn how to flirt subtly enough that it can be dismissed if Tommy isn’t interested. That’s the thing that makes Shakespearian poetry such a dignity murderer, the chance that it’s too much, too big, too soon and there’s no way to test the waters.

But it’s still his best shot, so he finds a book with poetry to pretend he’s reading aloud for one of his other English classes. He does not have a book with Shakespeare and he does not trust himself to not run away if he goes to find one, but he has luckily memorized some of his favorite sonnets.

(Okay, Kate may have a point when she calls him a Shakespeare nerd.)

He starts mumbling one just to establish that he is now reading aloud, that this is now happening. He quickly glances up a couple of times to make sure Tommy isn’t annoyed. He isn’t. In fact, he seems vaguely interested, reading his comic more slowly.

He starts another one when he finishes, this one more clearly. They’re in the back of the library, surrounded by books and not in a designated quiet zone, so his poetry reciting isn’t disturbing other people. He looks up when he’s done.

Tommy has put his comic away and is leaning in over the table. “Presentation?” he asks with a smile.

“Something like that,” David answers and looks him in the eye for a moment longer than he needs to. He needs to make sure that Tommy gets they’re for him or there’s no point to it. He starts a third sonnet – number 130, the one he decided to actually recite at him – and looks Tommy straight in the eye for the first line, before looking down as A) Tommy’s smile grows too big to look at without getting nervous and B) he remembers his cover story. He keeps staring at his book until he finishes, his cheeks extremely hot, but he manages to not completely mess up the word order.

“You nerd,” Tommy says fondly when he finishes and David is very glad he doesn’t need to spell his intentions out.

“Yeah,” David admits sheepishly.

They’re quiet together, Tommy smiling happily like he’s unable to contain it and David trying to control his heart beat.

“So this is a thing, right?” Tommy asks, still smiling like that. “We’re dating, right?”

David freezes, thankful he isn’t holding anything.

“Shit,” Tommy mutters quietly as David fails to respond.

“No, I mean yes, I mean-” David rushes to explain. “I mean, yes, you and me flirting is a thing and definitely headed in the dating direction, but I didn’t think we were there already.”

“Ohthankgod,” Tommy breathes.

David dares a small smile. “So… We’re…”

“Boyfriends,” Tommy finishes. He looks vaguely flustered, while David feels the sensation of victory.

“Yeah,” David smiles.

It feels too fragile, too impossibly easy to be real. After barely any effort, David has started dating his crush. He can hardly believe it, so he just… stares. Smiles at his boyfriend sitting opposite him. Eventually it starts feeling real enough that he can look away and he really does need to finish his physics homework before Friday, so he finds it under his poetry book and starts working on it as Tommy goes back to his comics. He’s just as distracted by Tommy as before they became official, but in a completely different way. He keeps looking up, often catching Tommy smiling back at him, and one of those times he notices the time.

“Oh,” he realizes. ”I have to go. Computer Science starts in fifteen minutes.”

“What,” Tommy says. “Dude, how many classes do you take?”

“So many,” David chuckles. He reaches over the table to take Tommy’s hand. “I’ll, uhm, see you later?”

Tommy turns his hand around, so he can intertwine their fingers. “Yeah. I’ll text you?”

“Sounds lovely,” David says. He lifts their hands closer to his face, so he can gallantly kiss Tommy’s knuckles.

Tommy laughs and detaches his hand. “You sap.” David’s pretty sure he can see a blush starting on Tommy’s cheeks. He smiles, pleased with himself, and packs up all of his books.

Once he’s actually ready to leave, he does it as slowly as possible, walking backwards to keep Tommy in view for as long as possible. Tommy’s looking right back at him, smiling as much as David. David thankfully knows the library well enough to not walk into any shelves despite going backwards. Then he turns a corner, the magnetic pull of Tommy lets go of him and he finally realizes how much he’ll have to hurry to make it to Computer Science in time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things that are irrelevant to the story, but still completely canon: David has computer science together with Doreen, Nancy, Tomas and Ken from Squirrel Girl.  
> Also, Sam and Steve are totally married.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, that... could have gone better.

David doesn’t have classes with anyone from that friend group Wednesday mornings, which means he gets to spend two glorious lessons without having to explain his personal life in extreme detail as he doesn’t see Kate before they meet up for lunch.

Kate’s marketing class is on the way between David’s French class and the cafeteria, so she’s waiting for him as he turns a corner. She’s leaning against the wall, looking like she owns the place – and to be fair, her dad just might – and she waves when she sees him.

“So,” Kate says the moment he stands in front of her. “You’re beaming.”

“I aced my French test,” David shrugs.

“Aaaaaaaand?”

“Whatever do you mean, Katherine?” David smirks. She deserves it.

“David, I need an update before we go meet the guy for lunch,” Kate says. “I need to know if I blow your cover if I tease him.”

While she did bring up a valid point and even phrased it as concern for him, David was feeling too good to let her win a point. Instead he started walking towards the cafeteria. “Eh.”

“Come on!” Kate says. “At least tell me if you Shakespeared the pants off of him.”

David stifles a laugh. “I did not Shakespeare the pants off of him.”

“Well, that’s a shame,” Kate says. “I bet it would have worked.”

“Well, I did Shakespeare him,” David admits. “But no pants were removed.”

“Oh my god, how did it go!?”

David smiles. “Well. Let’s just say that I may have a boyfriend.” They’d been texting all morning.

“Oh my _god_ , David!” Kate squees. “Congratulations! I _knew_ it would work. Who doesn’t want to be compared to a summer’s day?”

“I didn’t compare him to a summer’s day,” David says.

“Well, why not?” Kate asks. “That one’s cool.”

“It’s overused,” David explains. “And honestly, the moral of that sonnet is that Shakespeare is so great at writing that the people he writes about will be remembered forever.”

“I mean, that’s true,” Kate notes.

“Yeah, but it’s not very romantic, especially when you use it to charm someone else. The most suitable part of that sonnet is that it’s actually about the young man and not the dark lady like the one I did choose,” David explains.

Kate’s eyebrows rise up. “Wait, wait, wait, are you saying Shakespeare was historically bi?”

“The way we understand sexual orientation today is a modern invention and can’t be applied directly to historical people,” David disclaims. “But yes, Shakespeare was historically bi.”

“Score,” Kate smirks. “So your French test went well?” she asks after a couple of steps in silence.

“Of course my French test went well,” David says.

Their talk continues as they get close to the cafeteria. David can’t help but be distracted at the thought of meeting his boyfriend again for the first time since they became official. What’s going to happen, he wonders. So far they’ve flirted while drunk, sort of held hands, recited poetry at each other and texted every day stuff. Not the wildest stuff. How would they greet each other? The campus is generally queer friendly and their friends definitely are, but he still doesn’t want to make a big thing out of it.

Billy and Teddy have been dating since the second week of classes and they- Well, actually, David isn’t sure he’s ever seen them reunite. They’re always already hanging out by the time David meets them. Their goodbyes, however, are a non-phone version of “no, you hang up” with a lot of long kisses and that’s definitely not going to happen.

They meet Tommy, Billy and Teddy on a bench outside in the sun. Tommy’s looking very bored at Billy and Teddy’s cutesy staring into each other’s eyes and he’s drumming at the table until he notices Kate and David arrive. He jumps from the bench with a small, excited “David!” and hurries over to them.

David goes on autopilot, forgetting his complicated thoughts about how much is too much and let his instincts take over, which means that their greeting ended up consisting of a huge smile, a “hey” and small hug and then a quick kiss on the cheek.

And Tommy freezes.

“Tommy?” David tries.

“I just- I just remembered that I have to do a thing,” Tommy says, not quite looking at David. “A thing at a place. Which is not here. So, uhm, bye.” He runs off before David can ask him what’s wrong.

“What,” David says at the sudden absence of his boyfriend.

“Huh,” Kate says. “Guess the ‘ _may_ have a boyfriend’ line was surprisingly accurate.”

“Sarcasm is not the correct response, Kate,” David says. He’s not sure what is, but sarcasm for once isn’t.

“Wait, what just happened?” Teddy asks. Having finally remembered the world around them, Billy and Teddy had stopped the eye starring and gone to greet their friends. “He’s been non-stop excited to see you all day.”

“I have no clue,” David says.

“Looked like classic Tommy commitment issues from where I was standing,” Kate says. “Promises a lot, then bails when it becomes real.”

“Still not helping,” David says. “Billy, is it better to go after him or give him space when he’s upset?”

“He usually complains no matter which one you do,” Billy shrugs. “Assuming you can find him, of course.”

David hands his bag to Kate. They have Accounting together after lunch and it’s heavy enough that he doesn’t want to get bogged down. “Might as well try then.”

He follows Tommy into the park area he ran off to. He thankfully hadn’t been sprinting, too distracted by whatever was bothering him to get more than out of sight. He’s leaning against a tree a little into the park, his wide eyes not focused on anything specific but aimed at the ground, when David finds him.

“Tommy?” David asks. “Are you okay?”

Tommy looks up immediately at the sound of David’s voice, but it takes him a moment to acknowledge his presence, having been far away in thought. Finally he snaps “What the hell are you doing here?”

David raises an eyebrow. That’s not an attitude he appreciates. “I did something that upset my boyfriend. I wanted to know what it was so I won’t do it again,” he says calmly. There’s a tension here and he doesn’t want to be the one to escalate.

Tommy scoffs like that’s ridiculous, crosses his arms and looks away. “Yeah, right, well, it won’t happen again.”

“Tommy,” David says, his voice sharper than intended from trying not to get annoyed at the unnecessary hostility. “What are you talking about?”

Tommy stares at him. There’s something unsaid, something desperate in his eyes, but with no information, David can’t even begin to decipher it. “I’m talking about us,” he says and turns to walk away. “You don’t need to worry about an us anymore.”

It takes a couple of steps before David can react. ”Tommy, what the hell?” he finally demands. “This is not what I signed up for. If you’re not going to be a good boyfriend, I’ve got better things to do.”

Tommy stops walking and glances over his shoulder. “Yeah, well… Good!” It takes him a couple of words to sound defiant, but once he gets there, he’s pissed.

David glares. He meant what he said, but it was supposed to make Tommy realize what he was walking away from, not to let him do it. He makes one last attempt to be sensible and de-escalate, forcing the anger out of his voice. “Tommy, what is all of this about?”

“Nothing!” Tommy yells and storms off, this time too fast for David to follow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up: Open communication!
> 
> Remember that next chapter, which will be long by my standards, will be the last actual chapter before a brief epilogue.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for some communication!

Kate finds David in front of their next class and hands him his bag and some expensive cheer up coffee she bought for him. She doesn’t need to ask how it went. He’s glaring holes in the air. He accepts her presents with a grunt. “There’s a reason I don’t date,” he says after taking a sip of his coffee.

“My reason’s better,” Kate says. “If your crushes were less drama prone, your relationships would take less time away from your studies.”

David glares at her. “Not in the mood.”

“Geez, how bad did it go?” Kate rolls her eyes. “If your boyfriend can make you too angry for teasing, then-”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” David interrupts her.

“Oh,” Kate mutters. “That was fast.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” David says.

“Fair,” Kate says and takes a sip from her own crazy expensive coffee. “Let me know when you do.”

David has always had a talent of pushing emotional trouble away during class, so he actually manages to get good notes despite his sour mood. He makes it through his next class – Computer Science – similarly ignoring his issues and then he goes home to ignore them while doing homework.

He manages almost half an hour before he calls Kate. “I just don’t get it!” he opens. “He wouldn’t even explain what was wrong! I obviously freaked him out somehow and then he refused to let me in!”

“Maybe he’s having a not-gay panic,” Kate suggests. “Maybe he figured he could be cool like the rest of us, but actually isn’t.”

“That doesn’t fit with anything else,” David sighs. “I mean, he’s pointed out several cute guys at the bar and made out with several of them.”

“Can I return to my initial appraisal of classic Tommy commitment issues?” Kate asks.

“He’s the one who said we were dating!” David complains.

“Which is first step of Tommy commitment issues,” Kate reminds him. “First the promise, then the bail.”

David sighs audibly. “Dating is overrated.”

“Tell me about it,” Kate agrees.

She lets him complain about Tommy and overanalyze everything that happened and could have happened until he accidentally looks at a clock and realizes how much homework he hasn’t done. He says goodbye and hangs up with a sigh. He’s not behind on his studies, but the only way to manage as hard a schedule as David has given himself is to keep firmly ahead. He does allow himself to do the easy autopilot tasks instead of hard, brain wrecking problems, though.

The next day is Thursday, a day he can’t ignore Tommy. Minorities in Modern Literature is too small a class to ignore someone else in. But that’s not until late in the afternoon, David reminds himself as he gets ready for American History. David relies again on his ability to push personal issues away and focus on learning, so he manages to make it to Accounting and Kate’s presence before his thoughts start circling around Tommy again.

“Billy says he’ll make sure Tommy doesn’t skip class,” Kate reports from her phone.

“I honestly don’t care,” David says. “It’s none of my business anymore.”

“Right,” Kate says. “Because that’s convincing.”

David frowns at her. “I don’t _care_. I just… I wish I understood. That’s the part that bugs me.”

“And not the part where you’re still totally crushing on Tommy,” Kate rolls her eyes. “Of course not.”

“It’s not like that,” David objects. Maybe it’ll become true if he repeats it enough.

Class helps him ignore his issues yet again, but all too soon it’s over and then his stupidly packed schedule means they need to hurry to get to a class that David doesn’t particularly want to go to right then. Thankfully, arriving right as class starts means there’s no time to awkwardly not socialize before Professor Wilson wants their attention.

Class is awkward. Kate, David and Tommy had become pretty good friends over the last few weeks, so their usual spots had become pretty close to each other. Too close to ignore each other gracefully. It’s generally hard to ignore someone easily when sitting in a circle. If they’re as far away as possible, they’re opposite you and right in your line of sight, but if they’re out of sight, they’re pretty close to you. Add to this that Kate and David arrive too late to take other spots but those left behind and the result is that David can both see Tommy when he looks straight ahead and at the teacher _and_ that he knows Tommy is only a couple chairs to the left of him with neither of them saying a word to each other.

This David can’t push away. It’s too close, too important a part of the class. He spends more time trying to ignore Tommy than trying to pay attention to class. Professor Wilson thankfully doesn’t take the chance to question him while distracted. David has pulled his weight enough in earlier classes to cut him some slack, he supposes.

There’s a break in the middle of class and Kate elbows him in the side, an obvious suggestion to talk to Tommy. David ignores it and pointedly strikes up a conversation with Cassie to his right. They’ve never really spoken before, but she’s in one of Kate’s Marketing classes and she’s nice enough to make the conversation flow. David purposefully ignores Kate’s exasperated sigh.

Then class starts again and David has sort of figured out how to ignore Tommy and pay attention to class and yeah, this might actually work, he decides. The last hour passes by without incident and David’s about to slip away unnoticed when Kate grabs him by the backpack and drags him with her. “Oh no, you don’t,” she decides.

“Kate, come on,” David reasons. “Don’t be silly.”

“ _I_ shouldn’t be silly?” Kate snaps. “ _You’re_ the one being ridiculous! You think that this will just go away if you ignore him long enough?”

“Yes,” David says. “It’s working out great so far.”

“If you can tell me a single fact about the book we discussed in first hour, I’ll believe you,” Kate says.

David tightens his jaw and looks away.

“Don’t worry, I took extra good notes for your sake,” Kate tells him. “You were obviously not going to take them.”

“Thanks,” David mutters. “Can I go now?”

“No,” Kate says.

Just then Billy pushes Tommy into the circle of their conversation. “A delivery of one annoying twin brother,” Billy announces. “Can you fix his stupidity, Kate?”

“I can most certainly try,” Kate tells him.

“That’s better than nothing,” Billy says before leaving again, leaving them both at Kate’s mercy. “Play nice, Tommy.”

“Oh my god, will you stop acting like ridiculous jerks?” Tommy complains.

“Gee, you must feel right at home,” David says.

Tommy pouts at him in response.

“Come on,” Kate tells them. “We’re going to sit down and you two are going to talk this out and then I won’t need to listen to either of you whining anymore.”

And, well. When Kate Bishop has decided on something, it happens, so three minutes later the three of them have found a free table in an empty room. They sit down and stare at each other in silence for as long as Kate lets them.

“Alright, who wants to start?”

“What about the person who started yesterday?” David suggests coolly.

Tommy huffs and looks away.

Kate groans. “This is why I don’t date. Too much drama.”

“No, you don’t date because you’re aromantic,” David reminds her. She’s been too smug about all of this. She doesn’t get to pretend she’s a victim, especially not when this whole intervention thing was her idea.

Tommy frowns. “How does… being a romantic person keep you from dating?” he asks.

“No, I’m aromantic,” Kate corrects him. “I’m the opposite of a romantic person. I don’t get crushes or romantic feelings for people.”

Tommy stares at her like she’s tempting him with a forbidden fruit: At once intrigued and horrified. “That’s not a thing.”

“Tread careful, idiot,” Kate warns him. “You’re already on thin ice for hurting my best friend, don’t add aphobe to your list of bad traits.”

“But you’re- You’ve been, you know, making out and stuff with loads of people at the club!” Tommy defends.

“Well, _yeah_ , I’m bisexual,” Kate snaps. “I’m still attracted to people sexually.”

“But those are supposed to go together!” Tommy insists. “They have to!”

“Tommy,” David says carefully, quiet with the sudden realization. “Are you asexual?”

“What, _no!_ ” Tommy yells. He pauses, then adds “What, uh, what does that mean?”

“Not feeling sexual attraction to anyone,” David says.

Tommy bites his lips, still trying to deny the fruit that’s been offered. “That’s not a thing.”

 “Yes, it is,” David says. “It’s not as well known as other orientations, but it’s real and it’s perfectly fine. Some still fall in love with people despite not being sexually attracted to them.”

“That’s not how crushes are supposed to work,” Tommy says. His arms are crossed and his shoulders raised, all his defenses are up. It’s much too real for him.

“Some ace people feel sexual attraction once in a while, like if they know the person well,” Kate adds, understanding softening her bite. “It’s an umbrella term for anyone who doesn’t feel as much sexual attraction as society tells us to.”

“Fuck!” Tommy whispers, his voice shaking. “It’s… not wrong?”

“Of course not,” David says. “Except for when it makes you act like a jerk.”

“I was trying to _not_ be a jerk,” Tommy admits. His shoulders are coming down, but his arms are still crossed and he’s still looking at the table instead of his friends. “I’d… thought you were safe from… all that and then I realized you would want a _proper_ relationship with someone and I panicked and tried to make sure I wouldn’t keep you from that. I messed up.”

David looks at him. “I get to decide what I want from a romantic relationship, Tommy. A week ago, I didn’t want to date at all. I wasn’t looking to recreate society’s expectation of what a relationship should be, just what would be right for us. I could have been open to a non-sexual relationship if you had asked.”

“I’m sorry,” Tommy mutters. He finally looks up. “I would do it all over if I could, stop myself from making those mistakes.”

“What would you do instead?” David asks, meeting his eyes with a steady gaze.

“I don’t know,” Tommy shrugs. “Trust you to be more amazing and smart than me? I mean, that’s how it normally is. I should’ve… I should’ve talked to you, tried to explain what was going on, instead of blowing you off.”

“… Good,” David says slowly. “You just earned a second chance. Don’t mess it up.”

“What?” Tommy breathes.

“I’m biased,” David admits. “I’ve still got a crush on you. I want to make this work. Besides, realizing your orientation isn’t a flaw is bound to make you less prone to self-destructive outburst. I think it’s worth giving us another shot. I mean, if you still want to.”

“Yes!” Tommy gasps. “Yes, of course!” He bites his lips, trying to think, trying not to mess up again. “So, uhm, I guess I promised to explain stuff? What should I explain? I’m not sure how this… communication stuff works.”

 “What happened yesterday?”

“I freaked out,” Tommy shrugs. “I realized you weren’t… Were… whatever the words are. I don’t know how to explain it any more than that.”

“Allosexual is a word for anyone who isn’t asexual,” David supplies. “Let’s try a different angle. Are you attracted to me?”

Tommy thinks for a moment, looks at him intensely. “I like you a lot. I think you’re great. You’re amazing. You’re cute.” He pauses, sounds almost apologetic. “I don’t think you’re hot, not right now. Sometimes I do. Right now I can’t imagine having sex with anyone. No one’s hot.”

“I’m hot,” Kate tells him, because she can’t let such an insult stand and being quiet for so long must have been painful for her.

Tommy shrugs. “I guess. Passively. I mean, technically yes, but if this is… If there’s allowed to be a difference between cute and hot and I don’t just need to get my act together, then not really. Like, sure, you’re attractive, but you’re not… attracting?” He pauses. “Those words didn’t make sense.”

“I think I got some meaning out of them,” David reassures him. “What does cute mean to you?”

Tommy shrugs. He hasn’t thought that far.

“You freaked out when I kissed you. Is that too much for cute or did I not count as cute then?” David asks.

Tommy frowns as he thinks. “It wasn’t the kiss that freaked me out. It was suddenly knowing that you wanted all that other stuff. I think… I mean, if you’re sure you’re cool about all of this and no sex and stuff and a kiss like that isn’t a promise to do anything else, then I think kissing is still cool when you’re not hot, because you’re always cute and I do like you a lot.”

“First of all, a kiss is never a promise to do anything else,” David starts.

“Wedding wows,” Kate butts in like the smartass she is.

“Consenting to kissing does not equal consenting to other actions,” David says, glaring at her. “Anyway, Tommy, that’s fine.” He leans over to take Tommy’s hands. “Is there anything else I should know?

“Well, uhm…” Tommy glances at Kate. “Well, sometimes people are hot, but if I’m really invested in them, I’ll be too scared of messing up to even try. I’m, um, kind of a mess like that. So, like, because I like you so much, it’ll make other stuff weirder? Sorry about that.”

“You don’t need to feel bad about that,” David tells him. “Relationships are complicated. So are feelings. There’s no shame in any of that.”

“Okay,” Tommy says. “I’ll, um, see if I can remember that? All of this is a lot to take in at once.”

“Yeah, of course,” David says. “Let’s just take it one day at a time. You tell me if I’m crossing any of your boundaries instead of running away?”

“As long as you promise to tell me if you start to want more or feel trapped or anything like that,” Tommy nods.

“Sure, I promise,” David smiles. “Let’s talk about anything before it becomes a problem.”

“Ha,” Kate says and leans back in her seat, satisfied with herself. “Am I good or am I good?”

“You’re terrible,” David tells her. “You could have left at some point, you know.”

“Nah,” Kate says. “If I left before you fixed everything, you would never have gotten started and if I left while the ball was rolling, you would have had to start over. It was of utmost importance that I stayed to spy on you.”

David rolls his eyes. “You just wanted more gossip.”

“That is but a positive consequence of my responsibilities,” Kate grins at him. “Now come on, let’s go. It’s late and I’m getting hungry.”

David rolls his eyes. “You could also leave on your own now,” he tells her. “I wouldn’t mind getting some time alone with my boyfriend.”

“Gee, alright,” Kate says, getting up from her chair. “I can take a hint.”

Tommy laughs. “That was not a _hint_ , Kate.”

“Whatever!” Kate declares with a laugh in her voice as she leaves, waving without looking back at her friends.

David and Tommy look at each other. Alone together at last.

Tommy gets up quickly. “Hey, she had a point, I need to raid my fridge soon.”

“Yeah,” David agrees. It’s almost seven by then. “I’ll walk you home? Or, I dunno, some of the way?” While they could walk together some of the way, they had to go pretty opposite directions at one point. David wouldn’t mind walking further to see him all the way home, but he also didn’t want to make Tommy feel like he had to invite him up or anything else.

“Sounds good,” Tommy grins.

It’s chilly and dark when they get outside, but that’s just an excuse for them to cuddle up as they walk. David had offered Tommy his hand inside, but once the cold sets in, Tommy takes the entire arm and leans his head on David’s shoulder. They don’t see many other people as they walk down the street light lit road and all too soon, they come to the split in the road where they might need to part. David has already decided to listen to Tommy’s signals when they get there and Tommy stops walking.

“So, uhm,” Tommy says as he detaches himself from David’s arm. “This was nice.”

“Yeah,” David agrees easily. It was really, really nice, being just the two of them and not needing to perform for anyone else.

“I, ah, guess I’ll see you tomorrow?” Tommy tries.

“Of course,” David smiles. “I’ll look forward to it.”

Tommy chuckles. “You nerd.” He smiles in a way that clearly signals he has something more he wants to say, but David isn’t sure what it is, so he waits for him to find his words.

When that doesn’t happen, David finally takes a step back. “Yeah, uhm, bye.”

That snaps Tommy out of his spell. “Wait,” he says and takes the couple of steps it takes to reach David. He gets up on his tippy toes and then softly kisses his lips. “Good night.”

“Good night,” David whispers and kisses him back. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next week is the epilogue and I'm very excited to be finishing up an actual long fic and thankful for the wonderful feedback I've been getting, but more about that next week.
> 
> I've written Tommy as some sort of greyace or aceflux, but I also don't think he's introspective enough to ever settle on a more definitive label than "some kind of a-spec, probably?" so I haven't felt the need to label the set of experiences I gave him much beyond that. He's also sex repulsed to varying degrees at different times. Last chapter, for example, he was very sex repulsed, while he's been cool with stuff earlier. And of course, every ace and/or a-spec person's experiences will be different. If you're ace and this isn't you, you're just as wonderful as if it is you.
> 
> Kate finally said it herself this chapter, but she is aromantic bisexual and owning it.


	8. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And they all lived well adjustedly for a good while.

So here’s what David’s days go like these days:

He still gets up early to do an hour of studying before classes. He goes over his schedule for the day, his lectures and what assignments and readings he must review before them, as well as what homework, social plans or other tasks are planned for that day. Given the level of details his schedule goes into, this takes a while, but not the entire hour and when he’s done, David actually… relaxes.

Tommy sleeps at his place about as often as he doesn’t these days and when he does, he makes a wonderful breakfast that’s not quite nutritionally optimized, but still healthy enough and very delicious. It doesn’t take very long for David to eat a meal on his own, but he loves to listen to Tommy ramble about his new running route or gossip about people David will never meet or his latest bar crawl or whatever else he feels like and that takes a while. As such, David has to dedicate more of his morning preparations to breakfast instead of studying, but it’s a sacrifice he’s willing to make. Tommy suggested being late to class a couple of times, but that’s just ridiculous.

On the days Tommy isn’t staying over, they text all morning. David doesn’t look at his phone while reviewing his schedule and there will usually be between ten and fifty messages waiting for him when he finishes. One time there was more than a hundred. They generally consist of Important Youtube Videos that just can’t wait, whatever dumb puns or astute observations Tommy thinks of and random words spelled out one letter per message for emphasis. David can’t help his fond smile every time he gets a notification.

Classes go as well as usual. He has accepted not being 110% prepared, settling instead for 100%, but his grades haven’t suffered and his teachers don’t seem to have noticed. The few that have seem to think it a positive change.

On the days David has a break between classes to eat lunch in, he eats it with Kate, Tommy and the rest of the… MiML group. Conversations flow easily and David has spent long enough with these people at this point that he has figured out how to make small talk with most of them, not just Kate and Tommy.

After classes, David has figured out how make time for social arrangements occasionally during the school week and in return, Kate has graciously stopped dragging him to bars. He still goes sometimes, because there’s only so many times in a row he can ask Tommy to hang out at a library, no matter how modern and interactive it is, and he has yet to find a museum he’s been able to convince Tommy to go to. He’s quite enjoying finding time to go to art museums with Kate, who has been trained to recognize the old masters, but hardly respects them. It’s the perfect balance for the two of them to snark about all afternoon.

At the end of the day, David goes home for dinner and homework and Tommy tags along as often as possible. Tommy doesn’t have nearly as many classes or take his assigned readings nearly as seriously as David does, so he insists on making dinner for them while David studies. Given that Tommy genuinely enjoys it in a way that David, who always sees it more as means to an end, never has, David can hardly bring himself to fight him on it. Now, David’s a fine chef and he’s much better at following recipes than Tommy, but Tommy understands the dishes he knows how to make well enough that he doesn’t need a recipe. And when he decides to experiment and it all goes terribly wrong? He knows enough about improvising to salvage the dish into something passably edible.

After dinner the two of them do the dishes together, talking and joking easily. With the two of them working together, the dishes are quickly done and then there’s a couple of hours of actual studying from both of them. A better balance between school and fun still includes a good chunk of school and David honestly enjoys studying. Tommy accepts it as a necessary evil, since staring at David studying gets boring eventually.

Finally, satisfied with a good days’ work, it’s time to go to bed at a reasonable hour. Tommy has currently decided to give up going to bed extremely late for the chance to cuddle as they fall asleep, but may change his mind again in the future.

David sleeps and looks forwards to do all of it again the next day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with this, I wrap up my first completed major project. I've spent a lot of time writing and and rewriting and leaving for months and expanding and editing and leaving for almost a year before coming back to it about, doing another pass, writing the epilogue and doing final passes as I post each chapter this last month or two. So it's been a while and it's meant a whole lot to me that I've gotten so many super supportive comments from you guys as I've been posting it! There's nothing better than knowing people are enjoying my work that I've poured my heart and soul into over so long.
> 
> Also, the reason I came back and actually finished the fic now? I was stressing myself out by devoting way too much of my life to my studies and my mom told me to take a step back and rebalance my life. Finishing a story about someone who succeeds at that felt like the best way forwards. Since then I've been working on that balance and while I don't feel like I get nearly as much as before, my grades are still pretty good, so I must be doing something right.
> 
> Next up: Hopefully the x-men thing I've been cooking up over at my tumblr (which is at http://llamacorn-productions.tumblr.com/ btw as i don't think i've plugged it here before) but let's see....


End file.
